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Elizabeth Reis
- What’s Truly Outrageous About Intersex?
Posted on August 15, 2017
On August 5, the World News Daily Report published an article that has been circulating on my Facebook newsfeed every day since: “Hermaphrodite Impregnates Self, Gives Birth to Hermaphrodite Twins.” Never mind that at the bottom of the webpage, the World News Daily Report publishes the following disclaimer: that it “assumes all responsibility for the… Read more
- New York City’s Compromise on Dangerous Circumcision Practice Leaves Infants at Risk
Posted on March 5, 2015
I would guess that most Americans, even Jewish Americans, had never heard of metzitzah b’peh until the recent controversy between ultra-Orthodox Jews and the New York City Department of Health. This phrase, translatable as suction by mouth, refers to a custom performed after a circumcision in which a mohel (ritual circumciser) orally sucks the blood… Read more
- Rites and Wrongs: Changing a Ritual from Within
Posted on January 11, 2013
The previously obscure ultra-Orthodox Jewish rite of metzitzah b’peh (oral suction) has burst into the news lately and raised critical questions about genital surgery, consent, First Amendment rights, tradition, and the representation of Jews. I would guess that most Americans, even Jewish-Americans, had never heard of metzitzah b’peh (oral suction) until the recent controversy between ultra-Orthodox Jews… Read more
- The Flip-flop over Foreskin
Posted on August 28, 2012
The American Academy of Pediatricians recently released a statement saying that the health benefits of circumcision outweighed the risks. This pronouncement contradicts the Academy’s earlier ruling, just thirteen years ago in 1999, which stated unequivocally that the health benefits of the procedure were slim. The 1999 statement reversed a previous one made in 1989 that said there were… Read more
- Cultural Rite, Medical Wrong
Posted on May 11, 2010
Did you ever experience one of those moments when you agreed with someone’s arguments on an issue through point A, point B, and point C, but then somehow arrived at a different conclusion? It’s disconcerting, as if someone told you that 1 + 1 + 1 = 2. This happened to me recently when I… Read more
- Circumcision Deserves Circumspection
Posted on January 28, 2010
Twenty-one years ago I agreed to have my son circumcised. Today I signed a petition urging the American Academy of Pediatrics NOT to recommend circumcision to parents of newborn baby boys. Why the change of heart? Nothing traumatic happened to my own son; in fact, he’s sick and tired of my apologies regarding his circumcision… Read more